Friday, January 18, 2008

TWO NEWS ITEMS FROM COSTA COMMUNICATIONS

FILM COMPOSER MARC STREITENFELD

SCORES BRITISH BAFTA NOMINATION FOR

“AMERICAN GANGSTER”

Awards Ceremony in London February 10

(London, UK): German-born film composer Marc Streitenfeld has been nominated by the British Academy of Film & Television Arts (BAFTA) in the category of Best Music recognizing his score to “American Gangster” for director Ridley Scott. The score, over 100 minutes of music, marks Streitenfeld’s seventh consecutive music collaboration and second film score with Scott.

Set in the Seventies, the crime drama follows a detective (Russell Crowe) who works to bring down the drug empire of Frank Lucas (Denzel Washington), a Harlem kingpin who smuggles heroin into the country by hiding it in the coffins of American soldiers returning from the Vietnam War. The dark subject matter required a score that could support the tension and add impact to the intense drama. Streitenfeld's approach was to utilize an 80-piece orchestra as well as numerous acoustic pre-records, mostly performed by Streitenfeld himself. "The orchestra is only one element of many," explained the composer at a scoring session at the Sony Scoring Stage in Culver City, CA.

Streitenfeld just returned from Morocco where he reteamed with Scott on his post-9-11 spy thriller “Body of Lies.” Starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe, tells the story of a CIA operative sent to Jordan to track a high-ranking terrorist. The spy is aided by the head of Jordan's covert operations in an uneasy alliance that leads to cultural and moral clashed between the men. “Body of Lies” is currently in production and set to be released by Warner Bros. October 10, 2008.

The score CD to “American Gangster” is set for release by Varese Sarabande February 19. The 60th Annual Orange British Academy Film Awards take place Sunday, February 10 at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London.

FILM COMPOSER JOHN FRIZZELL

INCORPORATES SPIRITUAL ELEMENTS INTO

“HENRY POOLE IS HERE”

Film premieres at 2008 Sundance Film Festival Mon., Jan. 21

(HOLLYWOOD, CA)— Composer John Frizzell scores “Henry Poole is Here” for director Mark Pellington. The ironic modern-day fable stars Luke Wilson with George Lopez, Cheryl Hines and Adriana Barraza. “Henry Poole is Here” premieres at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival on Monday, January 21 at 3:15pm at Eccles Theatre in Park City. MGM releases the film on April 4. Frizzell, who has received critical-acclaim for his inventiveness in film scoring, continues his musical exploration for Henry Poole is Here.” Frizzell incorporated a full-string section and piano into his delicate score. He also recorded with ancient instruments to convey the sentiment of the film. According to the composer, “The score is very gentle and the goal was to create a spiritual, cathartic mood by overlaying duduk (a middle eastern wind instrument), erhu (a chinese violin) and solo violin over piano and orchestral strings. The themes are simple, almost childlike.”

“Henry Poole is Here” is the story of a man (Luke Wilson) who discovers that he only has six weeks to live, leaves his job, fiancée and overbearing mother and tries to spend his remaining days in seclusion. But he goes through a miracle transformation, and his neighbors disrupt his plan.

Frizzell has written scores for a variety of genres and he continues to demonstrate his musical commitment. He traveled to Africa to research and record for “Primeval,” where he enlisted Cape Town’s finest players to create a “composing library” of over 800 sound clips to create a revolutionary hybrid score which preserves the vibrancy African music, while re-contextualizing its distinctive tunings and rhythms into a Hollywood film score. For “The Prizewinner of Defiance, Ohio,” Frizzell recruited Grammy-winning Newgrass band Nickel Creek to play on his Americana score.

John Frizzell’s musical palette ranges from comedies “Beavis and Butthead Do America” and the cult classic “Office Space” to the thriller “Thir13en Ghosts” and the sci-fi drama “Alien Resurrection;” to the Civil War epic, “Gods and Generals.” The composer is currently scoring “100 Feet,” a horror/thriller from writer/director Eric Red.